Real Estate Daily News
Globe St.com is reporting investors and developers are paying a premium for land sites in opportunity zones. A new study from Real Capital Analytics shows a rapid increase in pricing for opportunity zone deals. According to the study, prices for redevelopment projects in opportunity zones increase 14.2% since December 31, 2017, while prices for vacant land for ground-up construction has increased 20.9%.
“These higher land prices suggest that the tax benefits are now being priced into land sales and investors do not appear to ascribe any future Net Operating Income (NOI) growth to Opportunity Zones resulting from that designation,” Phil Jelsma, partner and chair of the tax practice team at Crosbie Gliner Schiffman Southard & Swanson, tells GlobeSt.com. “If NOI were expected to grow in Opportunity Zones, the program would demonstrate the potential to increase productivity within the target areas. Rather the program seems to be resulting in higher sales prices to existing landowners for transactions that would have occurred in the absence of the Opportunity Zone program.”
“As more Qualified Opportunity Funds raise money and secure projects in their pipelines, it is expected property values in Qualified Opportunity Zones will continue to earn a premium, particularly raw land because it generally offers the greatest upside.”
